Deal in the works to move traffic around Manassas Battlefield

The National Park Service and Virginia authorities are close to signing a major Civil War battlefield preservation deal that eventually would close two congested roads that currently slice through the twice-hallowed ground at Manassas.

The agreement, which could be signed by the summer, would provide for routes 234 and 29 to be shut down inside Manassas National Battlefield Park. That would happen when new highways are built along the western and northern edges of the battlefield and serve as bypasses.

“We’re down to the wire here. It looks good,” said Ed Clark, the park superintendent, a key architect of the pact. “It puts the goal of removing all the traffic from the battlefield within sight.”

There are downsides, of course. It could be more than 20 years before both highways, sometimes called the Bi-County Parkway and the Battlefield Bypass, are completed. Local residents and environmental groups said they would destroy the rural character that drew them to western Prince William County. Some accuse the Park Service, which previously has resisted new roads and development, of selling them out.

On the bright side, however, shutting the roads inside the park would be one of the biggest achievements ever to restore the authenticity and improve the visitors’ experience at the premier Civil War battlefield closest to Washington.

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The Park Service and preservationists have long been unhappy principally with the steadily rising traffic inside the battlefield. On a typical workday, more than 50,000 vehicles pass through the intersection of 234 and 29 in the center of the park.

Congestion is so bad that it’s often impossible to complete the driving tour that traces the highlights of Second Manassas.

“What we’ve been saying for more than a decade is the biggest threat to this park is the commuter and industrial traffic that goes through it every day,” said Jim Campi, spokesman for the Civil War Trust.

Campi’s group hasn’t yet formally endorsed the deal, known as a Section 106 programmatic agreement under federal historic preservation law. His group wants to be sure the final form guarantees that both roads, and not just one, will eventually be closed. That’s important because current plans provide for the closures to be in two phases.

In the first phase, when the north-south, Bi-County Parkway is completed west of the park, then 234 would be closed inside it. State and local authorities are keen to push that ahead quickly. Local residents who stand to lose property, and other groups, are agitating to block it.

The park would have to give up four acres of land for the Bi-County Parkway and allow a noisy, four-lane highway to be built nearby. Clark, the park superintendent, doesn’t like that but says it’s worth it to eliminate a road that’s also pretty noisy and cuts right through his battlefield.

“We’re giving some on the periphery to get an awful lot in the core, in the center of the park,” Clark said.

In the second phase, possibly as late as 2035, the so-called Battlefield Bypass would be built north of the park. Only then would 29 be closed within it.

Clark said that, as part of the deal, he insisted that the Virginia Department of Transportation pledge firmly to close both roads once the new highways are built. His nightmare would be that he agrees to new highways just outside his park, only to see the state renege on its promise to shut the roads within.

“They would have to double-cross us to do that,” Clark said. “We have to operate in good faith here that they’re going to stick to their word.”

I mentioned this deal in the works in a post last year. I’m still on the fence with this one. On the positive side, if the proposed by-pass is completed, this would re-route thousands of drivers who would rather not be on the battlefield while on their way to and from work.

On the other side, I’m just wary of VDOT projects of late. Particularly where “bundled” into larger plans to revive the impractical beltway around the beltway. What’s really bad here are the long time line projections. We won’t need the 2013 solution by 2035. That long running project timeline could well introduce the “double-cross” that Ed Clark mentions.

5 responses to “Deal in the works to move traffic around Manassas Battlefield”

I believe I read somewhere that traffic might get worse through the park as VDOT diverts vehicles to deal with the construction. Knowing how these types of projects go around here, I can see this becoming a real mess over the years, particularly if litigation bogs things down. And a double-cross isn’t out of the question if we are talking a 20-year time horizon. Most of the people involved may be long gone by then…..On the other hand, the traffic through the battlefield can be awful, and ruin an otherwise pleasant historical experience. Not an easy issue by any means, but people are right to be suspicious and cautious.

I agree that this may part of a second beltway deal and VDOT cant be trusted. Where are they going to get the money to pay for this ???Make it a toll road..The deal should be to get Virginians out of cars and onto rail transit

NPS will need to consider that the resource is far more than the small piece of land they have in the park. It is an interesting way to buy federal support for the disastrous western bypass that will be the biggest threat to the Mosby Heritage Area and Loudoun’s historic landscape in years!

Glad you showed both sides of this, though, Craig–your blog is a fine resource

Just my opinion but I think this is a bad idea. I’ve been a regular visitor to MNBP for over 20 years – weekdays, weekends – at all times of day. One of the kids has XC practice there. I don’t find the traffic to be THAT disruptive the majority of the time. And when you hit the trails 29/234 fall out of sight quite quickly. I think the impact of traffic is overstated.